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Even when I die without getting a kill and we have a BT-2 team kill a team one in a mostly Tier 3/4 match we still win when I'm in the T40.

Like I said, the tall and short ones are very good and are reminiscent of the killing power of the Hezter when properly employed. I'm interested to see if some can finally get a lot of mileage out of the Wolverine though. I'm really convinced that it could be quite OP, but so far I haven't seen anyone dominate with one yet.

Also, Redshire is a fun, fun map for my Sherman 105. I generally do very well there. I also had an epic little defense there where we were outnumbered 5:2, and I end up killing four enemy tanks to force a draw. Add in another two kills earlier in the match, and I got another Top Gun for my Sherman.

Yeah, I'm crawling my way towards the M10 so we'll see. It's certainly tall, and a bit slow from what I've seen. I think you need to treat it kind of like a heavy tank and kind of like a TD. You want to juke cover a bit, but instead of doing it up front, you need to find a spot out of the way more. Being taller you can also use hides that other tanks can't.

I am really getting tired of my M4 and Ez8 getting fed to IS4's and Ausf B's.

I've never seen my M4 get sent against an IS-4, though I've had a couple of matches where there were like five Lowes on each side.

I killed one enemy Lowe and survived the match .

The Ez8 has a tougher time against super-heavies though.

I am really getting tired of my M4 and Ez8 getting fed to IS4's and Ausf B's.

Then kill the lower to mid tier things on your side then. Yeah it can suck but I've managed to do things in my M4 even when there are Lowe's and KV-5's running around (8 Lowes and a KV in one match). 105mm can be magical in that regard.

@Zinegata Yeah I managed to kill a Lowe too, so satisfying to pull it off. Pity an idiot in a heavy had to cry about kill stealing.

Bluewolf wrote:

I am really getting tired of my M4 and Ez8 getting fed to IS4's and Ausf B's.

Then kill the lower to mid tier things on your side then. Yeah it can suck but I've managed to do things in my M4 even when there are Lowe's and KV-5's running around (8 Lowes and a KV in one match). 105mm can be magical in that regard.

@Zinegata Yeah I managed to kill a Lowe too, so satisfying to pull it off. Pity an idiot in a heavy had to cry about kill stealing.

I have the absolute shittiest luck on my team, every time. If there is a superheavy on the enemy team, I will stumble upon it.

When driving a Sherman, I make it a point to never be the one who makes first contact with the enemy.

That should almost always be true unless you're top third or a heavy yourself.

Yeah in matches like that, charging forward as some sort of a suicide scout or lead attacker, that will lead to failure. In matches where I am low down I tend to stay with heavies and flank distracted enemies engaged in combat with the 105mm.

Bluewolf wrote:Yeah in matches like that, charging forward as some sort of a suicide scout or lead attacker, that will lead to failure. In matches where I am low down I tend to stay with heavies and flank distracted enemies engaged in combat with the 105mm.

Yeah, thats the thing. I almost never charge forward unless I'm in a three tank medium group or screening a heavy or two. In lopsided matches, I'm normally creeping along the edges of the map behind boulders, hills and other cover to sneak in behind and execute the filthy artywhores. And yet it never fails, I will be the one to find a pair of Lowes out in the boonies, or Tigers in the middle of nowhere, or a couple IS3's shooting the shit off to the side. It even happens in groups. I'm just fucking cursed.

I am the derpgun magnet.

Well, since slinking around the edge of the map or playing screen doesn't work for you, have you considered fire walling the throttles and going balls out? Or find some people to platoon with and operate as a forward scout for a pair of heavier tanks, TDs, or SPGs? If what you're doing isn't working then try something different.

Also, maybe mediums aren't your thing?

@Highlord Laan

It seems you have bad luck. I tend to often stay with a few heavies in a match with a lot of them. That way I am at the back and probably not the first thing a Lowe or an IS3 target. I also use natural cover etc, sometimes I get lucky and sometimes I get unlucky. As I just mentioned though being in a platoon or in a group helps immensely in situations where you can be popped in a second. Sniping can also be a viable option and tends to not drag you into the front lines as much. Enemy artillery along with people firing back is something to watch out for. Places like the large south east hill in Redshire and the grassy area next to the castle in Himmelsdorf can be great sniping situations but you need to be aware of threats around you, esp in the latter example.

Insisting that you play your Sherman or Easy 8 like a Mk III because you have a retarded hatred for arty is what's getting you killed.

People have generally gotten smart about tanks trying to sneak around the edges to try and nail their arty. To succeed, you need to be a small, fast, and very lucky tank - like the Mk III, the M7, or a BT. And you can't just go along the edges anymore - you're gonna have to do some daring shit and pray the other guys aren't attentive.

The Sherman and Easy Eight are NOT ideal for this role. They get spotted way too easily when they're moving full-throttle. These tanks only work in the deep-penetration role once the enemy has been thinned out - usually once the enemy is at less than 50% strength.

There frankly isn't even a tank good at these sort of deep-penetration raids anymore at Tier 5 and up save the M7 (they're all too big and you'll get spotted and smoked before you're anywhere near the arty). In most cases, you're better off sticking to the Leopard.

Besides which, the best weapon against arty at higher tiers is counter-battery fire.

Zinegata wrote:Besides which, the best weapon against arty at higher tiers is counter-battery fire.

Now I remember why I stopped playing arty. People were using hacked tracers that stayed forever, so they've cut tracer display for non-spotted vehicles, and they still haven't fixed it. I was really mostly playing arty to shoot other arty, it's a really fun way to spend a game, so losing that kinda killed my interest.

I'm annoyed that they didn't put tracers back in the way they said they were going to, because I was actually really damn good at counter-battery fire.

Counter-battery nowadays (rightly) relies on scouting and a fair degree of intuition.

Blind shooting still works especially at higher tiers since the favored shooting spots are generally well known.

But really, to be effective the best way is to have a scout coordinate with the arty. Unfortunately, most scouts seem determined to expend their own lives without waiting for arty to be ready to start shooting.

I just got my IS3. The very first match I played, I drove right in front of a Tiger II, a T20 and another heavy tank and bounced 3-4 rounds out of 8-10 before being killed. It's very nice to finally be able to bounce shells. Now I just have to get up to the final 122mm gun before I can start really killing stuff. A Tier 8 tank using a gun with only 175mm penetration is simply not good enough.

The IS-3 is indeed a lot of fun. It's one of the few tanks that should - in most cases - be the one to make first contact with the enemy.

Zinegata wrote:The IS-3 is indeed a lot of fun. It's one of the few tanks that should - in most cases - be the one to make first contact with the enemy.

Sadly, you'll find most of them cowering behind the mediums and in a bush within spitting distance of the starting zone.

Yup, it's a sign that you've poorly balanced a game when those tanks rarely make money unless they hide and play passive.

Norade wrote:Yup, it's a sign that you've poorly balanced a game when those tanks rarely make money unless they hide and play passive.

Gee, and you wonder why there are lower tier tanks running around when you go back to grind a new tank. It's a deliberate decision to encourage more than just a rush to the top that leaves new players behind. Goddamn man, are you intentionally obtuse? The system does plenty to encourage aggression. You don't make credits without shooting people after all, and you see people cowering by habit, rather than getting out there and fighting before attritive factors like arty bleed them white. It, just like suicide scouting is based on a misunderstanding of the game system.

Zinegata wrote:The IS-3 is indeed a lot of fun. It's one of the few tanks that should - in most cases - be the one to make first contact with the enemy.

It's solid, but it being one of the tanks that should make first contact is more from lack of others. I generally find one of the best things to make first contact is mediums set up as a picket that can pull back when they make spots after exposing as little of themselves as possible while the heavies go in.

I generally like the IS-3, but there are quite a few things that annoy me about it (and Russian tanks in general). First is that the armor seems ideal to just barely not bounce shells that actually do heavy damage, such as from tier VIII heavies and Tigers. That's okay, the tank moves pretty well, and it does bounce some (not as much as the T32 in my experience let alone a well driven one). That leaves the gun which has left me underwhelmed. It shares the bizzarely low accuracy of the American 105, which is even worse because of its glacial reload and eternal aiming time. It's a brawler, you want DPS not alpha, and you definitely don't want a gun where a miss will get you killed, because they happen point blank. I'd better like my IS-4, cause really, at this rate I'm going to prefer an upgunned T29.

xthetenth wrote:

Norade wrote:Yup, it's a sign that you've poorly balanced a game when those tanks rarely make money unless they hide and play passive.

Gee, and you wonder why there are lower tier tanks running around when you go back to grind a new tank. It's a deliberate decision to encourage more than just a rush to the top that leaves new players behind. Goddamn man, are you intentionally obtuse? The system does plenty to encourage aggression. You don't make credits without shooting people after all, and you see people cowering by habit, rather than getting out there and fighting before attritive factors like arty bleed them white. It, just like suicide scouting is based on a misunderstanding of the game system.

Except that new players still get thrown into matches where they're in a T82 facing down tanks they might be lucky to deal a few points of damage to. The matching making is as bad as it was in beta, and some people are still going to have the best new toys right at release. The cowering started because the high end tanks can't afford to die without killing stuff or they run at a loss. That encourages the morons who sit back in a heavy and do nothing as they hope a tank wander past their gun.

I can't wait until I get a tank with a fucking turret. The Lee is terrible. Still like 5k more experience to grind, which takes forever because I can't actually damage anything in the games I'm placed in.

Mediums are more ideal as a picket tank on defense, but on offense I've found that having a heavy in the lead is more useful. If the IS-3 is the top tank, chances are most of the things it will encounter at first contact will be unable to penetrate the front armor, allowing the support tanks to ravage the other tanks and allow the advance to keep going.

That's not to say the IS-3 should always be in the lead though. If the IS-3 is in a really high tier match (i.e. it's mid-ranked, or there are at least 5 other heavies or TDs of the same tier), then hanging back is more justifiable - the opposition has enough firepower to kill you regardless of your armor in this kind of match!

Also, the game is really designed to require premium accounts if you want to play Tier VIIs and up. Except for the Lowe and other premium tanks, Tier VIIs are generally not designed to make money.

Personally, I don't really mind playing in the lower tiers. I currently have a T1, a Sherman, an E8, a Hetzer, a KV, and the beta Sherman. My "end goal" is to keep all three Shermans, improve the KV to a KV-1S, and improve the Hetzer to a Stug. The only Tier VII tank I plan to get is the T-29, because it's really that freaking good and can even fight Maus-class opponents - but I still expect to pay for most of its bills using my Shermans.

The fact is you don't *need* to run up to get a Maus, an IS-7, or T34. Stuff like the Sherman are fun enough on their own, and I like to see horrible matchups as "Giant-Killer Actions" as opposed to "Oh shit, there are five Lowes on their team!"